Text 20118, 152 rader
Skriven 2007-09-07 17:05:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: beisbol 93
==================
Carol's employer occasionally gets tickets to sports events,
and although there is a big old queue for basketball or
football seats, the baseball games tend to go begging. The
Bowie Baysox are the local team (PG Stadium is just a couple
miles from the office), and the company got a skybox for the
second to last game of the season, when the Baysox were expected
to be fighting for its league playoff (but actually they appear
to have been recently eliminated). Carol tries to indulge my
fondness for the sport and pounced on the first available seats
(we actually got seats 3 and 4). Got to the park on a nice bright
day and found that it was t-shirt day, courtesy of MASN
(Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, the cable network of the Orioles,
which are the parent team. Also, it was Oriole Pride day; if you
wore a piece of Oriole garb, you got to bring a guest in free.
As the day was fine and the giveaways plentiful, I figure
there was a good crowd of a couple thousand maybe.

But in our skybox we were it. Four barstools, two comfy
chairs, a couch, cable TV, and 18 outside seats, and nobody
but us took advantage - for the first six innings it was our
own fine and private place, but when I went for a beer refill
Louie, the mascot of the team, was making his rounds. Carol
tells me that she was counting the minutes until I got back,
fearing she'd be assaulted by the big green dinosaur ...
luckily, I got back to take the brunt of the attention (Carol
took a photo of a sheepish-looking me being mauled by a
triumphant green monster). Subsequently we were invaded by a
big family who pretty clearly didn't belong (they tried to
steal our t-shirts) but otherwise were not bothersome.

The team could have used some help from the dinosaur, as
the final was Defenders 7, Baysox 6, with the Sox trailing
pretty much the whole game. Couple big home runs, though.

Beers: Bud Light for $6 a pint or 7 for 28 oz; something
called Beach Bum Blonde for $7 a pint - this latter turned
out to taste almost as pallid as Bud Light, so I went for
volume the second time, adding a couple wedges of lime for
flavor. I had made Carol promise to buy me a hot dog, but
when I witnessed an exchange between the waiter and the cook
at the Diamond View Restaurant, wherein the waiter conveyed
a request for an order of calamari not too salty, and the cook
(stereotypical several days' beard growth, sleeves rolled
up to reveal hairy tattooed arms, everything but the cigarette
stub, because that's forbidden) replied that it was already
made up, I decided to forgo solid food and petition the court
for a trip to DuClaw's for a burger and a beer that tasted
like something after the game.

==

Having had my gift of baseball, I was surprised to find out
that the company had another skybox, this time at RFK Stadium
for the Nationals game (the 10th from last baseball game to
be played at that park, which is being superseded by a big
new white elephant somewhere). This one came with a dinner
buffet and all the beer you can drink (up to the 7th inning).
Apparently there had been a seminar for which not enough
people had signed up, so they opened the after-event event
to the company as a whole. 50 seats. Priced (I looked it up)
at $7350 - 4625 for the seats; 1650 for the food; 1075 for
the beer. This is most relevant when I tell you that only
about 15 people ended up showing up. I did my valiant best
to do justice to $70 worth of beer and $110 worth of food
but could only manage to down two Sams and a Bud (I'd never
drunk out of one of those new aluminum bottles before). When
I moseyed up for a third Sam, it was the middle of the 7th
and they'd packed the beer up; settled for a Sierra Mist
(rather Spritelike) instead. For food they had (this from
the Website):

PEANUTS IN THE SHELL
Baseball fan's favorite game time snack. 

KETTLE CHIPS WITH ONION DIP
Crispy Kettle Chips served with onion dip.

[These were nice, crunchy, and fresh. There was also some
rather stale popcorn.]

IMPORTED CHEESE & FARMER'S MARKET DISPLAY 
An assortment of imported & domestic cheeses served with 
crisp carrots, broccoli, grape tomatoes, squash, crackers 
and ranch dipping sauce.

CHICKEN SAMPLER PLATTER 
Golden fried strips of chicken breast served with honey 
mustard and barbeque sauces and crispy chicken wings 
accompanied by sides of spicy buffalo, sweet chili and 
barbeque sauces, served with celery sticks and bleu cheese. 

[The breast strips were decent - way oversalted and way
overbreaded but not (perhaps as a consequence) overcooked.
The chicken wings were sorry things, both soggy and tough
at the same time. The sweet chili sauce was the standard
Thai dipping sauce, and so I used a fair amount of that.]

ALL BEEF STADIUM DOGS
Served with a fresh bun, sauerkraut, ketchup, stadium 
mustard, relish, and chopped onions. 

[Surprisingly okay, well-garlicked dogs.]

MIXED GREEN SALAD
Served with grape tomatoes, balsamic and raspberry
vinaigrette dressings.

TORTELLINI PASTA SALAD
Cheese tortellini with grape tomatoes and artichokes,
lightly tossed with Italian vinaigrette. 

SPRING ROLLS
Vegetable spring rolls served crispy with sweet chili and soy sauces. 

[Soggy with grease and condensation. Tasteless.]

GRILLED CHICKEN SANDWICH
Marinated grilled chicken breasts served hot with onions, tomatoes, 
lettuce on a bakery fresh Kaiser roll. 

[Looked nasty.]

FRESH FRUIT DISPLAY
Seasonal fresh fruit served with a yogurt dip. 

[Decent fruit, including pink grapefruit segments, blackberries,
and blueberries.]

LOADED NACHO BAR
Crispy Tortilla Chips served with warm cheese sauce, chili, jalapeños, 
black olives, salsa, and sour cream.

ASSORTED FRESH BAKED COOKIES
A variety of our soft baked cookies. 

{I had a bite of the sugar cookie, which tasted like baking soda.]

This time the box was more filled than the stadium, which
couldn't have been more than 20% occupied - on leaving, we got
seats on the first Metro out (which didn't come for nearly
a quarter hour). The game itself was amusing, with the Nationals
exploding as much as they could in the first, scoring three runs
on four straight singles (no extra bases: first, first and second,
bases loaded, and bases loaded again) and two walks. The Marlins
came back to tie, but Wily Mo Pena (I discover that this is Wily
as in Wilfredo, not as in Wily Coyote) the refugee from Boston
singled in the winning run, an insurance run coming a little
later. Nationals 6, Marlins 4.

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